While football took a huge step up in the state’s colored-tiered system for determining when high school sports are allowed to be played, volleyball was knocked back a potentially fatal step.
Under intense public pressure that reached all the way to the governor’s office, the state allowed football teams to begin practice this week in anticipation of a March 12 game start. By contrast, volleyball was dropped from the orange tier to the yellow tier, the most difficult of the four-tier system.
To reach the yellow tier, counties must have less than 1 percent new COVID-19 case per 100,000 population and less than 2 percent positive test per 100,000 population, numbers almost impossible to achieve in the current pandemic climate.
New Petaluma High School volleyball coach Amy Schwappach is having a hard time understanding how volleyball ended in the yellow tier.
“We received a big blow when the state allowed football to begin and downgraded volleyball from the orange tier to the yellow tier basically minimizing any chance we had for a season,” she said. “All of a sudden, they decided to change the rules on us.”
Two criteria weigh heavily in a decision on which tier a sport is placed – whether it is an indoor or outdoor sport and whether or not it involves physical contact. Volleyball is played indoors, but has very little physical contact. Basketball and wrestling, both indoor sports involving physical contact, are also in the yellow tier.
When the COVID-19 pandemic forced cancellation of all high school sporting events, the Petaluma volleyball team continued to meet via Zoom and players watched videos as “homework.” Later they began working training outside, observing all recommended precautions, including wearing masks at all times, even when they are practicing.
“Our outdoor training is going well,” Schwappach said. “But we are on grass outside where slips and slides are part of every workout. We have had zero incidents related to COVID-19 transmission.”
The coach said the players have remained generally upbeat through the changes.
“These young women are glad to be playing the sport they love and keeping a good attitude, although all players were in disbelief and felt defeated with the news about California sports,” Schwappach said. “It is hard for me to explain since I don’t understand either.”
One consolation from the shutdown has been that the coach has had an opportunity to bond with her new team and work with her players on character, culture and other aspects of the sport.
“It has been an opportunity to get to know the girls on a deeper level,” she said.
Schwappach said the hope is for volleyball to be moved back into the red tier where it is placed in other counties. That would allow Sonoma County teams to practice indoors and give them an opportunity to play in the Vine Valley Athletic League’s Season 2 which officially begins on April 12.
Meanwhile, Petaluma’s volleyball players keep working outside and hoping that a growing movement among players, coaches and parents to bring the sport back this spring will continue to gain support.